Sweet Starfire (19 page)

Cidra hugged herself, drawing the dark, concealing folds of her sleeping robe around her ankles. She tried to breathe as lightly as possible, using the skills she had learned in meditation practice. One thing was for certain. She couldn’t stay here. And she mustn’t risk allowing her pursuer time enough to find his lost quartzflash. No one who might be passing on the street outside would hear a scream from the heavily built lab structure. She had to find her way silently to the door.

But now the hunter was between her and the exit. Cidra contemplated that, trying to imagine what he might be thinking. He must have realized that she would try to get out the way she had entered. When she finally lost her nerve and made a dash for the door, he would be waiting. She would probably blunder straight into him. What she needed was an advantage. In the darkness she needed light. But it had to be light she controlled. Slowly Cidra unwound and crawled out from under the cage. Instead of heading toward the door she began inching her way, still on her hands and knees, down the aisle toward the rear of the building.

Whoever waited for her heard the soft scuffling sounds. Cidra sensed him moving down the aisle, following carefully in the darkness. She stayed low, ready to dart back under the row of cages. As she moved she counted the diazite structures she was passing, trying to remember exactly where she was. The tour of the lab that afternoon had been very thorough, and she had a well-trained memory. What good was an education if you didn’t put it to use?

The man behind her was gaining slowly, growing more confident as he followed the soft sounds she was making on the metal floor. When he spoke for the first time, Cidra almost screamed. His voice was a rasping whisper.

“Come on out, lady. Let’s get this over with. You don’t want to spend the rest of the night with these bugs, do you? No telling when one of them might get free. Why, I could open a couple of these cages myself with this little can opener I brought along. I might just do it, too, if you don’t cooperate.” He glided closer.

Cidra’s heart was hammering as the fear-induced adrenaline ricocheted through her system. Something was wrong with her insides. She felt almost sick. Steadily she moved down the aisle, forcing herself to count each cage. Three more to go… two more to go…

One more to go. One more, that is, if she had remembered exactly where she was when she had started and if she hadn’t lost count. She paused and listened. There was no sound from the inhabitants of the cage overhead. Flattening herself on the cold metal floor, Cidra waited. If she wasn’t beside the right cage, she was going to be trapped. She had to let the hunter get close. Too close to allow her to have a chance at escape if she had made a mistake.

She huddled into herself as the footsteps came nearer. He was making no effort to hide himself now. The confidence of the hunter was born of arrogance and the belief that he held the upper hand. Just the same sort of attitude that could get a person into trouble when he was playing Free Market.

The footsteps came to a halt. Now, in the shadows, Cidra could make out a pair of heavy boots not more than two meters away. She drew, in her breath and knew he heard the sound. “There you are, little lady. I told you there wasn’t much point in hiding.”

Cidra put up her hand and flattened her warm palm against the diazite of what she believed was the Rigor Mortis Mantis cage. For a heart-stopping moment nothing happened. Then the creatures inside reacted with an instantaneous flare of eerie blue-white brilliance, illuminating themselves to the man in the boots facing them on the other side of the diazite.

Cidra was not staring up into the cage. She was waiting for a glimpse of her pursuer’s face. It came, the features bathed in blue-white terror as the Mantises switched on the paralyzing luminescence. She had time to note the fear, time to see the pulser grasped in one huge hand, and time to realize that the mantises were very good at their work. Their victim was literally immobilized with shock and horror. He couldn’t even scream, although Cidra could see the panic in his eyes as she leapt to her feet.

The mantises had bought her only a few seconds, but that was all the time Cidra needed. She flowed into the deceptively gentle movements of Moonlight and Mirrors.

“I can’t let you out of my sight for a minute.” Severance slouched as usual in his seat, morosely regarding Cidra. Behind him the green wall of vegetation slipped past at a quick, steady pace as the skimmer, riding just above the water, followed the river into the dark heart of the jungle.

“That’s going to make things awkward, isn’t it? Because, after that display in the Bloodsucker, I’ve learned that I can’t take you anywhere.” Cidra knew she was being dangerously flippant, but the truth was that she was getting tired of the never-ending lectures. They had been going on in one form or another since she had dragged Desma out of the bio lab and called for help. Help had come quickly enough, but so had Severance.

“This isn’t a joke, Cidra. You could have been seriously hurt. Maybe killed. You should never have gone into that lab alone. As soon as you opened the door and realized something was wrong, you should have called a company guard. They get paid to go into places like that. You don’t. Come to think of it, I probably ought to dock your salary for bad judgment.”

“You’re not paying me a salary, remember? Just providing transportation and scenic sidetrips such as this one.” Cidra’s eyes widened slightly as she had a flash of intuition. “I think you’re chewing on me as if I were a bite of torla steak because I let him get away.”

Severance leaned forward with an abrupt movement and lowered his voice so that it was only barely audible above the hum of the skimmer’s power cells. “If you really believe that, then you’re functioning on fewer brains than a novakeet.”

The image was not a pleasant one. Novakeets, with their splashy orange-and-red plummage, were pretty enough creatures, but on Lovelady nature seemed to have decided that such beauty didn’t need a lot of brainpower. Cidra cast a quick glance toward the front of the skimmer where the pilot was safely out of earshot inside the diazite cabin. Then she glared at Severance.

“Why are you so angry with me, Severance? You’ve been this way since you found out what happened.”

“I’m angry because you came so damn close to getting yourself hurt, you little idiot!”

She searched his fierce gaze for a moment. “Desma was the one who got hurt.”

“I’m aware of that. Just promise me that next time you’re on the threshold of a situation that looks serious, you’ll go get help, not try to handle things yourself.”

Cidra considered the request. It seemed reasonable. “All right. I promise.” She was silent for another moment. “Do you think I’m likely to run into many such situations while I’m traveling with you?”

“Not if you do as you’re told.” Somewhat mollified,

Severance leaned back in his seat again. “Saints in hell, you gave me a scare.”

“Believe me. It was nothing compared to the scare that intruder got. I’ve never seen anyone’s face twisted in such a way. It was as if he were wearing a mask. Which is why I had so much difficulty describing him later to the company guards.” “They know he was carrying a pulser, at least; That’s illegal inside the walls. Did you knock it out of his hand when you went into your Moonlight and Mirrors routine?”

Cidra closed her eyes, trying to remember those awful few moments. “I don’t know if I disarmed him or if he simply dropped the thing in his terror. He was quite frozen with fear for a few seconds. And I wasn’t far behind. Even though I wasn’t looking at the creatures and I knew something of what to expect, that eerie brilliance they produce is very hard on the nerves. In the darkness the man couldn’t see the diazite between him and the mantises. Even if he knew that logically speaking they were probably in a cage, his mind reacted first to the terror. When they leapt toward him, he saw them move. The next thing he knew, he felt me attacking. In his fear I think his mind mixed up the two sensations and assumed that the Rigor Mortis Mantises actually had hold of him. He didn’t try to fight me as if I were merely a human being. He screamed and fled. Which is why I was not successful in detaining him. His terror gave him a great deal of strength.”

“And you’re just damn lucky he didn’t use it against you.”

“Severance, if you say another word along those lines—” He held up his hand. “I know. It’s just that I’m still recovering from shock. Thank Sweet Harmony that you and Desma are both all right.”

“I just hope Desma’s not in any danger now that we’re gone.” Cidra still felt uneasy about leaving her new friend behind in Try Again, even though Desma had displayed no such concern.

“She’s hardly alone,” Severance said bluntly. “Her company will be giving her and the lab full-time protection now that they know someone has his eyes on one of the products she’s on the verge of producing.”

“She thinks the intruder was after some record of the results of her work on a new pesticide,” Cidra murmured. “Apparently it would be worth a great deal to a rival firm.”

“All the more reason for her company to take care of her. She and the lab both qualify as company property.” Severance’s mouth lifted slightly in the first trace of amusement Cidra had seen since he’d shown up after the incident in the lab. “And you come under the heading of company property yourself. Right now you belong to the firm of Severance Pay, Ltd. It’s my responsibility to keep track of you. So you will stay in sight so I can do exactly that.”

Cidra withdrew into the remote, polite facade that she was learning served her well during times when she wished to halt a conversation with Severance. She was careful to maintain a serene expression so that he couldn’t accuse her of sulking. There were advantages to some of the Harmonic tricks she’d learned over the years.

She turned her attention to the wide swath of river that served as a highway for the skimmer. Occasionally they passed the mouth of one of the many tributaries that fed into the main stream. The network of rivers was extensive, and many of the smaller ones still had not been fully explored. The water passing under the skimmer was a murky color, thick with the sediment it had picked up on its meandering journey. She couldn’t see more than a few centimeters under the surface. The vegetation grew right to the water’s edge and into it. Huge leaves of an impossible green hung over the banks. Occasionally Cidra caught a splash of movement as some river denizen leapt out of the water to snatch a tasty morsel that had made the mistake of journeying too far out on a broad leaf.

At one point she thought she had seen a set of reptilian eyes just above the water, watching the skimmer sweep past. When she had pointed them out to Severance, he had shrugged and said she had probably seen a river dracon.

“I’m not familiar with river dracons,” she said. “What do they look like?”

“You don’t want to know,” he told her.

“Nonsense. All knowledge is good.”

“Even knowledge that gives you nightmares?”

She let that pass. She hadn’t slept easily the previous night. Images of huge bugs shining with unnatural light had invaded her dreams.

Tough reeds and floating flowers that were almost a meter wide battled for living space near the banks of the river. Beyond them the jungle was a wall of green that discouraged any attempts at penetration. The companies involved in exploration work had soon learned that it was easier to use the rivers as roads than to try to rip out the vegetation and pave the jungle floor. There were one or two other small settlements similar to Try Again where a mail ship or small plane could land on the continent, but for the most part, field camps and outposts were accessible only by river skimmer.

The skimmer rode a short distance above the water, sinking back down onto the water when the engines were cut. It was a lightweight boat, made to carry small amounts of cargo and passengers. The crew usually consisted of just one individual who also acted as guide. In this case the pilot’s name was Overcash. He wore the uniform of the ExcellEx company. If Overcash had a birth name in addition to the one he’d chosen, he hadn’t bothered to dispense it when he had been introduced to Cidra. It hadn’t surprised her. She was growing accustomed to the lack of formality among Wolves. She was also getting used to the fact that outside Try Again, people were armed. Overcash and Severance both wore pulsers strapped to their thighs, the small, personal weapon the lab intruder had held. Pulsers were blunt, ugly instruments that would kill.

The skimmer had a clear, enclosed cabin in which the navigation instruments were housed. There was room inside for the pilot and one or two passengers to shelter in the event of a storm. Since they had left Try Again, however, Cidra and Severance had been sitting in the stern of the craft, which was open. That had suited Cidra just fine because she was fascinated with the scenery. The river seemed to have its own scent, a distinctive combination of vegetation and water thick with life. Unfortunately Severance had utilized the privacy afforded in the back of the skimmer to continue with his endless commentary on the events in the bio lab.

Cidra shifted slightly, vaguely uncomfortable in her new clothes. She had never before worn anything but one of the formal Harmonic surplice robes, and she felt odd. The tough fabric of the trousers and long-sleeved shirt Desma had insisted she wear were rough against skin that had only known the touch of finely spun crystal moss. The garments were designed in the manner of the functional uniforms worn by most people on Renaissance: snug trousers and a cool, loose-fitting shirt. The fabric was heavy and largely insect-proof, although it wouldn’t be much help against something the size of a Bloodsucker. There was a hood that could be drawn over the head in the event of bad weather or a swarm of flying creatures such as the stinging bandini Desma had described. When she moved around, Cidra was aware of a sensation of being partially undressed. It seemed to her that the trousers and shirt defined her body too revealingly. More than once she had caught Severance eyeing her in the new clothes. He seemed especially fascinated with the shape of her buttocks.